The Search For Norman Spencer

Trying to dig up information about animated cartoons decades after the fact is like solving a jigsaw puzzle. The pieces have to fit. Sometimes you don’t have all the pieces. When they do fit, it’s quite satisfying.

This brings us to Norman Spencer.

Fans of Warner Bros. cartoons will recognise Spencer as being responsible for (some of) the musical scores before Carl Stalling arrived in 1936. We’re fortunate Stalling was interviewed several times before his death so we know something about him.

But what about Norman Spencer? Who was he?

Well, he wasn’t Norman Spencer. At birth, anyway. This may get a little convoluted, but let’s put the pieces together.

We will start with information previously recorded on this blog. Ralph Wilk’s column in the Film Daily of April 29, 1936 states:

Norman Spencer, composer and director of music for the “Looney Tunes” and “Merrie Melodies” cartoons being produced by Leon Schlesinger, has signed a new, three-year contract. His son, Norman, Jr., handles the musical arrangements for the series.

Okay. We know Spencer has a son. Now piece number two. A newspaper search of Spencer’s son reveals a story about Norman, Jr.’s wedding. The Evening Citizen News told Los Angeles on August 5, 1938:

Newlyweds to Live In New York City
Mr. and Mrs. Norman Spencer Jr. (Emilie Bean) today were on their way east with the intention of making their home in New York City. The Rev. E. S. Gates solemnized their marriage Wednesday afternoon in the Little Chapel of the Dawn at Santa Monica.
The ceremony was a private one and was followed by a family dinner at the Beverly-Wilshire Hotel. Those present were the bride's parents, Mr. and Mrs. E.H. Willumsen of Beverly Hills, the bridegroom’s mother, Mrs. Leona Spencer, and Mrs. A. Clerici, the bride's grandmother.
Mrs. Spencer graduated from the Beverly Hills High School. Mr. Spencer, a graduate of the Homer Grunn Conservatory of Music, will assist his father, Norman Spencer, Sr., in radio work.

Now we know the name of Spencer’s wife and daughter-in-law. To FamilySearch.org we go. Nothing about either Spencer, Jr. or Leona Spencer. But now we know his daughter-in-law’s maiden name. Aha! A match. The marriage license discloses Norman Spencer is a stage name.



Norman Spencer is, in reality, Norman Spencer Matthews. And another search of the same site shows us he was born in Minneapolis on March 3, 1891. Now that we have his real name, we can tiny trace a bit of his non-musical career.



At the age of 19, he married an 18-year-old daughter of a woman running the Lorraine Hotel in Salt Lake City, giving his address as Los Angeles. I’ve found no story on the wedding, but he was revealed in 1911 as a piano player in Salt Lake papers covering a trial involving his underage sister-in-law being held against her will by another woman in a “lewd house,” as one paper put it.

Norman Jr. was born in Los Angeles in 1912; the family was at 907 East 6th Street. A squib by Harry Sloan in Billboard of August 15, 1914 says “Norman Matthews has taken the piano at the Ship Café [in Venice, California]. A good man for a good job.”

In 1916, the San Francisco city directory shows Spencer and his wife living there. A story in the Chronicle of April 2, 1916 talks about Kids Day at Golden Gate Park and one of the performers “Norman Matthews, the latter being a pianist as well as a vocal expert.” His World War One draft card in 1917:



Let’s get into Spencer’s musical career, because it grew in fits and starts. One thing we do not know is why he dropped his last name professionally at this point.

He wrote a tune with Henry Williams called “Slow and Easy” in 1919 which was a hit. It was plugged all across the U.S. in ads for piano rolls. The following year, music publisher Daniels & Wilson stated its catalogue included Spencer’s numbers (Buddy De Sylva and Byron Gay were represented; their songs appeared in Warners cartoons of the 1930s).

Spencer spent two months in New York composing the score for “Gre-Na-Da” (Variety, April 2, 1920), returning to the Bay Area but eventually heading back to Big Town. A story in Variety of April 8, 1921 says he was appearing at the Moulin Rouge. He tried to break onto the Great White Way, as we see in various trade and regular publications, including the San Francisco Chronicle, June 12, 1921:

Frank Bacon, star and author of the three-year dramatic success, “Lightnin’,” is collaborating with Milt Hagen, Joe McKiernan and Norman Spencer—all of San Francisco—on a new operetta to be produced in New York next season.
The title of the play is “Tahoe.” Milt Hagen, collaborator with Frank Bacon on the libretto, is a member of the Press Club of San Francisco and is a graduate of Stanford University, where he wrote many plays, such as “Biff! Bang! Bullsheveck!”, “The College Prince,” etc. He was also editor of the Chaparral at Stanford. Joe McKiernan and Norman Spencer are writers of some of New York’s greatest hit songs, such as “Cuban Moon,” “Don’t Take Away Those Blues,” “New and Then,” etc.

Spencer seems to have been back and forth across the country during the ‘20s. A fascinating story involves a party in 1925 for actor Sam Allen, a friend of the aforementioned Frank Bacon. The Los Angeles Times of November 8th reports the people who took part in the merry entertainment were “Bernard Brown’s jazz orchestra, composed of Bernard Brown, Norman Spencer and Scotty Denton.” I think it’s safe to assume they’re Schlesinger’s Norman Spencer and Bernard Brown.

Now comes the Warner Bros. connection. Variety of December 28, 1928 reported Warners was starting production of shorts at the old Vitagraph studios in Brooklyn. Departments were being set up, including “music captained by Norman Spencer, who assisted Louis Silvers on the coast.” Billboard added the next day “He is a well-known musician and composer and for many years was on the vaudeville stage. He played in local orchestras while getting his musical education.” The January 16, 1929 Variety stated Vitaphone had seven-piece orchestra under Spencer.

Flatbush didn’t keep Spencer for long. He return to Los Angeles to take charge of Warners’ new popular music department (Variety, January 30, 1929). Things changed quickly. Ray Perkins was placed in charge (Los Angeles Times, February 22). Spencer and Herman Ruby were assigned to compose the music for Colleen Moore’s first talkie, Smiling Irish Eyes. The tunes were published by Witmark.

Spencer’s piano playing (like Stalling’s on cartoons for Disney) could be heard on the early talkies; he accompanied Eddie Buzzell in Little Johnny Jones (Billboard, August 17, 1929).

Spencer was put in charge of the First National studio chorus. The Los Angeles Times of February 23, 1930:

At present they are rehearsing for “Mlle. Modiste,” Victor Herbert’s operetta soon to start filming.
The chorus will be in charge of Norman Spencer, who has been directing the studio’s choral numbers, and who is in charge of all voice tests. Spencer selected the thirty-two members from more than 5000 applicants. They are of all types and ages as they will frequently be called upon to appear in minor roles.
Every one of them, according to Spencer, knows three languages well, and has a knowledge of five.

Whether Spencer fell out of favour at Warners is unclear. On Song of the Flame, he assisted Ernest Grooney who was in charge of the choruses (Plainfield Courier-News, August 8, 1930). Motion Picture News of September 24, 1931 refers to a male trio in the Vitaphone short Gates of Happiness as being the Norman Spencer Singers.

Then we hear no more of Spencer until Leon Schlesinger entered the picture. But it had nothing to do with cartoons. Leon was testing out a new venture. The Hollywood Reporter of Nov. 20, 1931:

Arrangements to score features for independent producers have been made by Leon Schlesinger, of the Pacific Title and Art Studios. He has engaged Bernard Brown as head of the technical department, and Norman Spencer to run the musical branch. The recording will be RCA-Photophone.
The studio will have a 25-piece orchestra which will score original music, thereby saving the producer the usual fee for clearing music. Also all trailers will be accompany by the orchestra and have sound effects.

How long the venture lasted is unclear, but we find Spencer and Brown together in another company. Film Daily of February 25, 1933:

Norman Spencer and George Waggner of Brown, Spencer and Associates, have just finished six songs for the next W.T. Lackey production, “False Fronts.” Spencer was with Warner Bros. for eight years while Waggner has written several song hits.

While this was going on, Leon Schlesinger was negotiating a renewal deal for cartoons with Warner Bros.—without the services of the Harman-Ising studio. Leon decided to build his own animation operation. Film Daily of June 10, 1933 stated Schlesinger had hired his staff, with Brown to head the sound department and Spencer to head the music department. Whether Brown actually did any composing is debatable. According to Mike Barrier’s book “Hollywood Cartoons,” he was also working in sound engineering on the main Warners lot. And I defy anyone to outline the difference in scores in cartoons where Brown has a credit and Spencer has a credit. The credits could have been alternating by contractual agreement, but that’s speculation on my part, based on an interview Friz Freleng had with Jerry Beck that Brown’s rare cartoon directorial credits were because of studio policy.

This brings up to the Wilks story that opened this post. That three-year contract signed at the end of April 1936 didn’t last long. Film Daily of August 3rd reported Carl Stalling had been hired to replace Spencer, whom it said had “resigned.” Mike Barrier’s fine interview with Stalling, published in Funnyworld 13 four decades ago, has the infamous quote about Spencer and Schlesinger having differences: “I don't know what the trouble was about, but the inside of the music room desk was all cluttered with empty whiskey bottles.”

If you ever read or hear Mel Blanc tells the story of him seeing Spencer week after week to get a job, then coming in one week and learning Spencer had “died,” Mel’s telling a fish story. At first, he never mentioned a death but he must have realised it was a better story if he did. Spencer was very much alive and next surfaced at Warner Bros. radio station KFWB. He hosted a show on Monday nights from 8:30 to 9 called “Can You Write a Song.” It began on October 4, 1937 (Radio Daily, Sept. 29, 1937) with Harry Warren and Al Dubin as the first guests. It awarded cash prizes to amateur songwriters. The show aired on other California stations as well. This is the programme Norman Jr. was assisting on.

Despite critical praise, the show left the air less than two months later. No sponsor. (Hollywood Reporter, Nov. 24, 1937). Then Spencer ended up in court, where he won ownership of the show after a lawsuit by two men claiming a half interest in it and its copyright (Broadcaster, Feb. 10, 1938).

Spencer moved to New York City and took his music-writing show concept with him. “The Musical Night Court of the Air” was its new title, starring “judge” Norman Spencer. It began life on the small WVFW in Brooklyn on November 29, 1938, and moved to WINS New York on Monday nights at 7 p.m. by April 1939.

Norman Spencer Matthews died in New York on February 15, 1940. He was 48. Municipal death records give his occupation as “music publisher” living at 246 West 70th Street in Manhattan. Unfortunately, the site gives no cause of death and even odder, there is no obituary in any of the New York newspapers I have looked through.

As a postscript, Spencer’s widow and son’s family moved back to California. Spencer Jr.’s son, named after his grandfather, died when he was six days old. Leona Hannah Matthews passed away in Los Angeles on February 12, 1980. Likely no one ever recorded her thoughts on her late husband’s musical career.